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Walt was baptized on Sunday with two other babies from the church. It was fun because while the other, younger babies were well behaved, Walt was entirely unhappy being in Baron’s arms and cried during his baptism. A lot! It was funny, though, and the whole congregation laughed with us. The service was beautiful, and my mother-in-law threw a wonderful lunch party for friends and family afterward. The day was gorgeous, perfect temperature, the food delicious, and the company even better. Family drove in from Alabama and friends I don’t get to see very often came to celebrate. It was an absolutely wonderful first Mother’s Day for me!

David let me sleep in by playing with the baby in the morning. Walt has started having trouble going back to bed when he gets up early. He used to get up at 5am, nurse, then go back to bed for a couple more hours. Mama liked that deal. But now he is drowsy while nursing and then wide awake when he’s finished. Even if the birds aren’t up singing yet! The day before they had gone on errands so I could get some work done, and they picked out The Sound of Music on Blu-ray to give to me. Besides being one of my favorite movies, it convinced me to want a beautiful wedding gown as well as four to seven children. If Maria can do it, so can I!

While searching the internet for a perfect baptism outfit, I decided there were none. Most of them were expensive and looked silly, especially the “boy” ones. My own baptism outfit is lost, and the Johnston ones fit smaller babies. I wasn’t quite sure what to do until I decided to make my own outfit for him. Like Maria, I should know how to make clothes too. I looked at dress patterns, but they were all so frilly. So I decided to make him a white linen john john (AKA romper). I found an awesome free tutorial online, and when I emailed the link to myself, I wrote, “Am I really going to be able to do this? We will see.” I apparently have great faith in myself. To be fair, the tutorial seemed very confusing until I started doing each step; then it made more sense.

My initial sewing adventures started with a onesie I shortened into a shirt for Walt. The long onesie fit him weird but it was cute and I had bought it from a thrift store so I thought, if I mess this up I’ll only be wasting a couple dollars. But it turned out OK and he wears that shirt all the time. I did it to another shirt. Then I wanted some napkins sized appropriately for a baby because I felt I was wasting too many paper towels at mealtimes. Thinking it would be easy to do and fun and would save me the hassle of spending lots of money online, I did that too. They even turned out cute!

I’m not really sure what possessed me from going from an easy square project to children’s clothing, but hey, I like a challenge.

I made the pattern:

I worked day and night, and night and day. While it isn’t perfect, it turned out perfectly!

And with a sweet day shirt underneath, it was beautiful on my little boy. He looked like an angel. And we got compliments on the outfit before people even knew I made it!

And that’s why, if you think you’re going to get a present from me in the future, it’ll probably be handmade. Or a used book. Because I love used books!